State Sec. Mike Pompeo said the U.S. would “surely look” at banning Chinese social media apps including TikTok’s short-form video app over national security and privacy issues.
“About Chinese applications on people’s mobile phones, I can tell you that the U.S. can get that one right too,” Pompeo said in an appearance on Monday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle, Fox News. “I don’t want to get out in front of the president, but we are looking at it.”
Pompeo added that people should download TikTok only “if you want your private information in the hands of the Communist Party of China.”
The news comes as TikTok is looking increasingly to distance itself from its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance. TikTok was barred from India last week along with 58 other China-made devices amid national security and privacy issues. TikTok ‘s ban came as a major blow as India was one of the fastest growing and most lucrative markets. There have even been rumors that a moratorium
was being looked at by the Australian Government.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out for comment on TikTok.
TikTok also announced on Monday night that it was pulling out of Hong Kong after a controversial security law was passed by the city government last week.
Reuters reported on Monday night that Apple and Google ‘s app stores for Hong Kong are being removed by the social media giant.
“We’ve decided to stop operations of the TikTok app in Hong Kong in light of recent events,” a TikTok spokesperson told Reuters. The allegedly short-form shared video network has 150,000 users in Hong Kong.
Earlier Monday, Facebook , WhatsApp, Twitter, Google and Telegram all said they were suspending co-operation with Hong Kong police regarding user information requests.
This article originally appeared in THR.com.
